給行動應用程式開發者

Advantages

For mobile application developers, the Open Web Apps project offers these advantages:

Simplicity: Develop on a single technology stack (HTML5/CSS/JavaScript) and deliver across all platforms, from smartphones to tablets to desktops.

Standards: The technology stack is defined by standards bodies (W3C and Ecma) that operate in the open, rather than by particular technology or platform vendors.

Freedom: You're not locked in to a vendor-controlled ecosystem. You can distribute your app through the Firefox OS Marketplace, your own website, or any other store based on Mozilla's open app store technology.

Reach: You have the potential to reach Firefox's 450 million desktop users, as well as users of other desktop browsers and mobile users.

Steps to developing a Web app

1. Develop your app using open Web technologies.

You probably already know at least a bit about HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. The Learn section of this website has resources to help you ramp up even more. As a mobile app developer, you already have a Mobile First approach to Web design.

Optional features

Philosophically, the idea of an installable Open Web app is much more than simply adding a manifest to your site. Web standards technologies can be viewed as a full-blown application platform that happens to use a browser engine for rendering user interfaces and interpreting code, and happens to use Web protocols for communicating with a server. Mozilla offers "Web runtime" executables for various platforms so that apps can run in their own window, without a browser window frame.

To "appify" a website, there are many application-specific questions to consider:

Give users a way to give you feedback. Mozilla's user research shows that users want to give feedback to app developers, and want to know that there is a human receiving it. They want to make suggestions and get help with problems. They may stop using an app if they have a problem and there is no way to get help with it.